Another forgotten warrior

Ex-Bear Larry Morris can't take care of himself and his family needs money, but it isn't coming from the NFL

April 15, 2007|By David Haugh, Tribune staff reporter.

In July, Larry and Kay Morris will celebrate 50 years of marriage.

Larry, 73, probably will spend the day playing Ping-Pong or Chinese checkers--two games he still understands that occupy much of his time. He won't be able to wish Kay a happy anniversary.

"He recognizes family, but he can't say my name or that I'm his wife," Kay Morris said over the phone from their home in Flowery Branch, Ga. "I call Larry my 2-year-old teenager."

Larry Morris, best known for being the most valuable player of the Bears' 1963 NFL championship game victory over the New York Giants, cannot be left alone because of his dementia. His plight puts another face on a story Mike Ditka passionately began to spread in Miami during Super Bowl week about needy retired NFL players whom Ditka and others believe the league has either forgotten or ignored.

A linebacker for the Bears from 1959-65, Morris still looks robust enough physically to keep up the pace of someone who once earned a living chasing running backs.

But mentally he lacks the capacity to remember how to sign his name or complete regular hygiene tasks. And his family lacks the financial wherewithal to care properly for someone requiring special assistance.

Morris' wife recalled attending a funeral of a former Georgia Tech teammate when her husband put ketchup and mustard in his drink. Unattended, he has been known to mistake his suit jacket for slacks when getting dressed.

He goes with his wife to the grocery store and church, and on good days she lets him mow the lawn under her watchful eye as long as he promises not to get too close to the blade. He speaks in what she calls "a foreign language."

When Kay Morris, a realtor near Atlanta whose four children lead busy lives in the area, must leave the house she relies on the help of a health-care worker who visits two days a week.

In the 15 years since Larry Morris first started showing signs of dementia that the family says neuropsychiatrist Gary Figiel has linked to Morris' playing career, the costs of caring for him have increased significantly. His wife says she has gone through $100,000 in inheritance money, refinanced her home for another $100,000 and just borrowed $10,000 from a generous business associate.

The family blames the dementia for contributing to the loss of the family fortune. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Kay Morris recalled her husband making a series of uncharacteristically bizarre business decisions that ultimately caused the Morrisses to lose their home and Larry to be indicted as part of a multimillion-dollar loan scandal. Morris eventually was put on probation and his family thrust on a course that would see them live in four different homes in the first year after the financial collapse.

"I think he was a desperate person who didn't quite know what was happening to him," Kay Morris said. "He was aware enough to know he lost everything, and that humiliated him."

Health-care costs `overwhelming'

Kay Morris worked as hard as she could selling real estate to keep the family afloat. But because of limitations imposed by her husband's health and a soft Atlanta real estate market, she has sold only one home since October. That has left Social Security income and Larry's $985-a-month NFL pension to pay for everything else, including the spiraling health-care costs.

Making a living in the NFL then meant something different than it does now; in 12 seasons, Morris' highest salary was $27,000. Little is left.

"I'm living month to month to care for him," Kay Morris said. "The stress of it can get overwhelming."

Reached Friday about the Morris situation, Ditka again railed against an NFL system he believes treats former players worse than any other pro sports league and forces families who are technologically challenged to navigate a bureaucratic maze. Asked to explain their program and respond to Ditka's charges, an NFLPA benefits representative did not return repeated calls.

"The game was made a long time ago by guys who persevered, [but] now they don't have enough money because the NFL players' union is saving millions in a strike fund and [NFLPA executive director] Gene Upshaw makes $4 million? That's B.S.," Ditka said. "When somebody does need something, like Larry, the league is reluctant and fights it and makes the family jump through hoops just to get something. That's not right. The injury caused them to be this way."

In recent months the league has taken measures to acknowledge those realities by implementing "The 88 Plan" into the most recent labor agreement in honor of former Baltimore Colts tight end John Mackey. Like Morris, Mackey suffers from dementia. His is so severe that his wife, Sylvia, has to post notes on the bathroom mirror reminding her husband to shower.